Guillaume Briconnet

Guillaume Briconnet (1445-1514) was a French cardinal of the Catholic Church.

Biography
Guillaume Briconnet was born in Tours, France in 1445, and he served as a financial administrator before being made Secretary of the Treasury by King Charles VIII of France. Briconnet would become Bishop of Saint-Malo and Toulon, pursuing an ecclesiastical career, while also serving as a diplomat. During the King's invasion of Italy in 1495, he was sent to Pope Alexander VI as his ambassador, and King Charles later demanded for the Pope to make Briconnet Cardinal-Bishop of Albano in exchange for the French leaving Rome alone and not deposing the Pope. His son Jean Briconnet, a soldier in the French Army, was murdered by Cesare Borgia for raping Vannozza dei Cattanei during the occupation of Rome. Briconnet's influence at the French court died with King Charles, as King Louis XII of France took Cardinal Georges d'Amboise as his trusted adviser. He crowned Louis as king in 1498, and Louis had him plot against Pope Julius II, an enemy of France, with other cardinals. Briconnet was excommunicated and deprived of the purple for his plotting, but he was restored after Julius' death. He died in 1514.